Green Cross Australia is helping to build stronger communities
as we confront the realities of our changing climate. We encourage
communities to learn about the history of severe weather and what
climate scientists project for coming decades. We encourage a
culture of disaster preparedness and self relience given that, when
major weather events occur, families and entire communities can be
without power or clean drinking water for many days.

In addition to supporting preparedness, we offer tools and
inspiring case studies that encourage people who have been impacted
by natural disasters to rebuild in sustainable and resilient ways.
We help people to build back green.

Reports from the Australian scientific community state that:

'Australia's land and oceans have continued to warm in response
to rising CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels...Droughts
and heat waves are going to become more frequent and more
intense...Temperatures over land and in the oceans continue to
increase rapidly, sea levels are rising, and extremely hot days
have become more common.'

Internationally, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change has had similar findings, reporting that natural
disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity around the
world and that for Australia as a whole, an increase in the number
of dry days is expected, but it is also likely that rainfall will
be heavier during wet periods.

Now, take this issue of more and more intense weather and
overlay it with another challenge: our growing population -
especially around coastal areas. When a disaster hits, our
emergency services will be more stretched, more people will be
vulnerable, more buildings could be destroyed, and there could be
more mass destruction.

There is a tendency for people to think that an extreme weather
event would never happen to them, and if it did, the Government
would be there to save them. But when faced with catastrophes like
Victoria's Black Saturday bushfires and Queensland's floods, the
government is often overwhelmed and under resourced. As a community
we need to take responsibility for our own safety. We need to be
more self reliant, and develop our own response plans should the
worst happen.

Community resilience is 'the capacity of groups to withstand,
recover from and respond positively to crisis or adversity'. It's
our ability to adapt, learn and bounce back from natural disasters,
and having active networks which can communicate and work together
in times of need.

In addition to our project websites in this area, we have run
event hypotheticals, La Nina awareness seminars and post-disaster
recovery workshops to advance the 'eco-resilience' theme. We have
also written thought leadership essays in this area. More about
this week is featured in the links below.